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Anchored in charming Dana Point Harbor; the Brig Pilgrim is one of Southern California’s most beloved tall ships. Built in 1945 to replicate the original circa 1825 ship; these three-masted schooner is now home to an award winning living history program and it is open to the public most Sundays. To learn more on that, we’re with Ocean Institutes Maritime Coordinator George Mack for a quick tour in history lesson. Veronica Hill: So what can tell me about this magnificent ship? George Mack: Well this and certainly is. This is a copy of the ship that Richard Henry Dana would have sailed on. During his time as a sailor from about 1834 to 1836 going from the east coast in the United States, Boston to the west coast of the United States which this area here would have been known as San Juan Bay in here. Veronica Hill: Okay. George Mack: And now, of course it is named after him so it is called Dana Point. But this would be—this area here, it needs that are still behind us are—I think he would definitely know them even this day. The vessel actually was built in 1945 at the end of Second World War and it actually was a real working ship on the North Sea. It was built in Denmark and from there, sometime around 37 years ago, there were folks that were interested in doing historical programming in this area about the book that Dana wrote which was “Two Years Before the Mast” and from there, they had embarked on sort of this long journey to be able to bring this ship here and modify it just a bit so it was about as exact to Dana’s original vessel as possible. Now here, I’ll show you what to do. This is probably the safest way to do it, is you want to face this way. Veronica Hill: And go down? George Mack: And go down because it seems awkward but it is actually safer. Veronica Hill: Okay. George Mack: There, just watch your head, watch your head. So what people would do is, they would say hey, “you’re going to California for Boston here, I need to go.” If you want to, okay but you know, you’re going to pay for a kind of an economy class ticket and so this hole if you can imagine, this whole hole would be pretty much to the rafters with cargo. So if you had a spot; a ticket on here, you’d have to cut and climb over all the cargo to get back in your bunk. Now, if you were somebody of means, you have money, then this was for you. From here on out, if you’ll notice in Dana’s book, the title of its “Two Years Before the Mast”, okay, that was kind of us a jargon or slang terms that sailors reviews kind of a bit the same way that like today, we call a job blue color or white color? Okay, if you were this being the mast, if you were being before the mast, in front of it, you were worried, you were somebody that was definitely in a very harsh situation. If you were after the mast, then you have much nicer life. Now, if you have money, what you would is of course, this would be your hatch. You would come down here, this would be staplers. There is really nothing much to them, it is the same thing as this, it is just that at all the cargo would stop here, so have room to come down here, go in to one of these state rooms and enjoy the journey there but in real life yeah, this would have been it. So, the upper class passenger would definitely have had—and as I have said you know, there is really nothing more to it, I mean you got a couple more bunks but that’s it. There is nothing lavish about it. it was still—but the fact that you have privacy, you had space, that was what people would pay for. Here is what is called the forecastle and this is the very bow of the ship. You can see that the point of the ship kind of converges right there. Now, in this area, here, even though you have four banks, you probably have a hammock here and hammock here so that means you would be able to sleep six people. But you have to remember, on a vessel like this, you’ve got a crew of anywhere form 30 to 40 people. This was the entire cruise quarters. Now, you’ll probably say to yourself, well how can you have 30 to 40 people in here? How they did was this, it was something that they still do even today on modern submarines, it is called hot bunk. We basically only have the amount of sleeping quarters for the amount of staff that would be sleeping. So on vessels like this, they did four out of the watches, four hour shifts. Where there were six four hour periods in a 24 hour period. So, six people are down here for four hours: six times six, thirty six. You could have up to 36 people. Every four hours, when that bell rings, everybody gets out, goes up on their job, the next crew guys will come down and it’s their turn to go to sleep, they could add six come in here and go to sleep and so you are climbing into somebody’s bunk that is still hot, that is why they call it hot bunk And you know, when you think about it that is pretty disgusting. This whenever you look at movies, you see the bow of the ship going — you know it’s crushing through the waves, you are getting thrown up into these raftered, so a lot of sailors that is why they always seem look like a big duffle bag, not a suitcase or anything. What they would normally do is take all of their soft items, their clothing and stuff and put them in those soft bags and tie them up in here, so they got thrown up into the rafters, it wouldn’t hurt so bad. So, you can see—I mean, if you are very bow of this ship and the Captain and his chosen officers are all the way to the stern which has actually the smoothest ride. You can be in really bad season being in the stern and still not feel wind. The ship takes up an awful lot of that; sort of that shock absorption in there and so here it is not fun especially with some serious whether it’s definitely make sure in your page then. Veronica Hill: Next time you are in Orange County, check out this dirty and entertaining Tall Ship. It is sure to be a fun and educational family experience. For more California travel videos, tips and advice, log on CaliforniaTravelExpert.com.